The 2015 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. See how far you go.

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Adobe is proud and excited to announce the finalists for the 2015 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. For 15 years, the ADAA has showcased top new talent and launched careers from around the world – recognizing over 15,000 aspiring creative professionals and empowering the student community to present and celebrate their best work.Industry heavy hitters – including Adobe’s Executive Creative Director, AJ Joseph – reviewed over 600 semi-finalists from 37 countries and 171 institutions to distinguish 42 finalists across 13 categories:

“I remember my first big break when I got something into the NewMedia Invision Awards, and it really launched my career. Just the chance to present a talented man or woman with that same opportunity is rewarding and inspiring, because it makes you appreciate your own journey more.”

“I typically look for the narrative – ‘what’s the story?’. But, we also have to look beyond and ask if there’s a strong theoretical underpinning – a craft. There has to be a real attention to detail, and there also has to be heart.”

The contest closed in June with 2,617 design entries submitted by higher education students from around the world. The Semifinalist entries represent a total of 31 countries.454 entries were selected for the Semifinalist Session II round, along with 178 entries from Session I. The 632 entries and are now being shown in the ADAA Live Entries Gallery, celebrating a vast variety of student creativity. Entries can be sorted by Semifinalist standings, country, or institution. The ADAA Live Entries Gallery also includes images from all entries submitted by every participating student in the contest.

Adobe Design Achievement Awards Semifinalists Session 2 Illustration

The work was selected by a semifinalist judging panel, comprised of 29 professionals from the ico-D, International Council of Design community. Panelists are from 10 countries including the UK, Netherlands, Canada, Dubai, Poland, Israel, Germany and South Korea.

Semifinalist entries will be reviewed over the course of two days during the Adobe Design Achievement Award 2015 official judging, August 11-12, 2015. The judges will select finalists from the collective 632 semifinalist entries, across 13 categories of design. The ADAA 2015 category finalists will be announced on August 24, 2015. Winners will be announced on September 4, 2015. Grand Prize Winners will be announced during the Awards screening in conjunction with Adobe MAX to be held in Los Angeles, October 3-7, 2015.

Adobe Design Achievement Awards Session 2 Semifinalists Animation

Join us in congratulating the ADAA Session II Semifinalists on Facebook: www.facebook.com/adobeawards.

Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA) 2013 finalist Robert Long illustrates our world in subtle and unexpected ways. Robert’s illustrations blend an authentic natural style with an enlarged hyper-realism, sharing the creatures of our world from his unique perspective.

The ADAA judges were impressed by Robert’s illustrations of insects in 2013, and he continues to impress the critics.

Robert recently won the Edible Community’s Eddy Award for Critics Choice Best Imagery of the Baja, Arizona honey bee. Scientists and farmers in Baja have been studying the population decline of bees and butterflies, and working towards solutions for pollination to help preserve the insects, and our food sources.

Robert commented, “I aim to inspire curiosity in the intricacies of the natural world, and by extension, promote nature conservation.”

Robert added that his ADAA experience has extended his creative network around the globe.

Robert’s most recent illustration commissions have been for magazines; including the April cover for Arizona Alumni Magazine and the Edible Baja Arizona Magazine. Robert has also illustrated for Biosphere2 and aquaculture, with work for a science center next on the horizon.

Eddy Award Honeybee illustration on exhibit at the Nave Gallery Annex in Boston until May 10 by Robert Long

“When I’m not peering through a magnifying glass, I stay inspired by visiting international natural history museums and aquaria. A natural curiosity pushes me along, often to places I didn’t expect to be.”

Adobe congratulates Robert for his continued success, and applauds his support for nature conservation through the beauty of his illustrations. We wish all of the students in the ADAA unexpected inspiration and curiosity while building their creative careers.

Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA) 2014 Grand Prize Winner Nicolas Ménard has been busy these past few months building his career, freelancing, and finding time to create personal projects.

Nicolas was honored by the ADAA judges in 2014 with a Grand Prize in Traditional Media for his illustrated book Elsewhere and his animation short Somewhere won the category of Animation. Both projects were inspired by his early experience of leaving his home in Montreal to study at the Royal College of Art in London. Nicolas is now represented by Nexus Productions in London.

Elsewhere book excerpt by Nicolas Ménard.

Experimental personal projects have helped Nicolas remain inspired across both his personal and professional work. Nicolas creates indie animated shorts and maintains an online portfolio, in addition to his professional projects. “I’m freelancing in London as an illustrator and animation director, and I work on animation commercials. Between jobs, I keep screen printing and working on personal short films and other projects. I figured out that this seems like the best way to stay inspired.”

How has Nicolas juggled the demands of work and personal projects since graduation? “That’s been the hardest part to figure out after studies: How do I find a balance between personal work and commercial work? And how will that make me happy? I’ve found that having gaps between jobs allows me time for research and experimentation. This way, I can ensure that my artistic production keeps flourishing.”

We wish Nicolas, and all of the students participating in the ADAA community, to enjoy building and pursuing creative careers while staying inspired along the way. View work by Nicolas Ménard in the ADAA Gallery.

Somewhere animation excerpt, Nicolas Ménard

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2015 contest early submission session is open until April 17, 2015. Final deadline is June 19, 2015 at 5pm PST.

Donica Ida and Bing Zhang are at the beginning of promising careers six months after they each took home an Adobe Design Achievement Award (ADAA) at Adobe MAX.

At Home with the Night Marchers by Donia Ida

Donica was completing her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York when she submitted her Interactive Media Grand Prize winning piece, “North” to the ADAA contest. The ADAA experience changed her perception of the creative world. “The opportunity to meet and spend time with the other finalists was my favorite part of the experience. Sharing our insecurities about our respective future careers and our mutual excitement for inspired lectures at Adobe MAX made the creative world seem much smaller and less daunting.”

At Home with the Night Marchers by Donia Ida

Donica has completed her internshipwith Pentagram and is now working as a full-time freelance Senior Visual Designer at Critical Mass. Her recent illustrative work explores the theme of life journeys.

Donica added, “I think it’s important for creatives to look at projects from other disciplines, and push themselves towards experimenting with varied mediums. Different experiences and design vantage points, can only lead to a broader source for inspiration and unexpected creative delivery.”

Crossroads, A World War II Story by Bing Zhang

Bing Zhang was studying at California State University Long Beach, when he was honored by the 2014 ADAA judges for his digital publishing entry “Crossroads, A World War II Story”, a narrative piece to view World War II history from numerous perspectives. Bing intentionally creates through many mediums, including web design and photography.

Bing Zhang is currently employed by Walt Disney Studios, working on projects that challenge and inspire him through motion graphics design and post-production.

Crossroads, A World War II Story by Bing Zhang

Bing noted, “Being at Adobe MAX was very fortunate for me. Despite the short period of time, I made good friends whom I am still in contact with. They really inspired me to do more. They remind me that I am a creative individual and I still have my vision to share. And my current employer has noticed, so we had a small celebration as well.”

We look forward to watching the successful careers of Donica, Bing, and all ADAA honorees of the extended creative community for many years to come.

Today, Adobe announced the call-for-entries for the annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). This prestigious competition honors the most promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from around the world.

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2015 Call for Entries

For the past fifteen years, Adobe has showcased top new talent and launched careers with this event. Students can submit individual and group projects produced with Adobe’s world-class creative tools and apps in thirteen different categories. And what’s more exciting is that this year we have two new categories — Advertising Photography and Social Impact Design, to round out an already robust list.

A panel of design experts will judge each category and Grand Prize winners will be announced in conjunction with the Adobe MAX creativity conference held in Los Angeles, October 2015. Winners will receive a 12-month Adobe Creative Cloud membership, travel and accommodations to MAX in Los Angeles as well as access to the event, and creative mentorship. Three Grand Prize winners will receive $1,000USD.

Deadline for entry is June 19, 2015 at 5pm PST. For submission guidelines, categories, prize information, amazing student work and more, visit www.adobeawards.com. Also, check out our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter (@AdobeEDU and @AdobeAwards) for the latest news and updates.

“Submitting work to such a respected competition can be intimidating. When I was a student, I considered participating, but felt that making the cut would be such a long shot, that I didn’t allow myself the opportunity to do so. In hindsight, my advice is that that regardless of the outcome– what’s more important, is to take steps that demonstrate a belief in your work and yourself, which can lead to more self-confidence and career opportunities,” encouraged Alia Hassan, Director of Design, Blue State Digital and ADAA judge.

In August, nine official judges were invited to the Adobe offices in New York, to select the ADAA winners from over 1,100 semifinalist entries. The judges chose 10 winning entries and 25 finalist entries. The category winners represent 5 countries, with a total of 17 countries from among all 2014 honorees.

Photography: Jingjing Shen, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom and China

Print Communications: Albert Junghwan Son, Parsons The New School for Design, United States

Individual category winners receive prizes which include $2000US and access to AdobeMAX. On October 5th, three media segment Grand Prize winners will be announced at the Adobe Design Achievement Awards ceremony and reception, to be held at the USC School of Cinematic Arts prior to the Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles. Grand Prize winners will each receive an additional $3,000US.

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2014 finalists are announced. Running for fourteen consecutive years, the (ADAA) global contest continues to receive thousands of quality submissions every year. The competition honors the most talented and promising student designers, photographers, illustrators, animators and filmmakers from the world’s top institutions of higher education. This year, the contest received 4,419 entries from seventy countries.

Nine official judges met at the Adobe offices in New York, to select the 2014 ADAA honorees from over 1,100 semifinalist entries. “There was an incredible variety of animation entries with an amazingly high level of production. Some entries shared moving narrative, and many were exquisitely designed with sharp and witty execution. We had a wonderfully difficult time in selecting the finalists and winners,” commented J.J. Sedelmaier, ADAA judge.

Official Judges select the #ADAA14 finalists

The judges debated and voted on the most creative student designs to honor. The judges chose 25 finalist entries representing student creatives from over a dozen countries. Download the Finalist list. “We are proud and excited to recognize these selected finalist works. Those chosen were both strong in concept and brilliant in execution, each created by student designers whom we look forward to seeing grow and become a creatively impactful force in the global ADAA community,” added John Vondracek, The String Theory and ADAA judge.

The judges selected students to receive Special Designations for designs that demonstrated achievements in Typography or Social Impact. The judges also recognized 23 students with Honorable Mention designations. Honorable Mention recipients represent countries Australia, Croatia, China, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States.

This year, the ADAA competition will feature ten categories of design, across three media segments. Each individual category winner or group leader, will receive prizes which include a 1-year membership to Adobe Creative Cloud, $2,000US, a trophy, and a 1-year mentorship with a design professional. Three media segment Grand Prize Winners will be announced at the Adobe Design Achievement Awards Grand Prize Screening and Reception, to be held in conjunction with Adobe MAX on October 5, 2014. The Grand Prize Winners will each receive an additional $3,000US.

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards official judgingwas recently held at the Adobe offices in New York. During the course of the contest, students from over 70 countries submitted into two submission sessions. Thirty-seven pre-selection panelists poured over 4,419 entries to select the best Semifinalist work to be judged in the final round in NYC.

This week, nine official judges from varied creative perspectives, convened to select the most innovative and inspiring student designs. The official judges reviewed over 1,100 international Semifinalist entries, culminating during an intensive two-day judging process.

Through management by long-standing ADAA partner, Icograda, the judges deliberated and voted, to arrive at their decisions of winning entries.

The judges shared their insights. “I was most impressed by work that explored concepts in clean, clever, or engaging ways. It was incredible to see so many brilliant ideas executed beautifully,” commented Nina Boesch, ADAA judge and 2006 alumnus. “I’ve enjoyed the unique pleasure of being honored by the contest, then serving on the ADAA pre-selection panel, and this year, serving as an official judge. The ADAA program has been immensely valuable to me as a contest honoree, and now, as a member of its global community.”

Adobe is looking forward to formally announcing the 2014 ADAA finalists on August 25, 2014!

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards team is always happy to hear from ADAA alumni.

We enjoy hearing about the evolving creativity and recent accomplishments that come from our global community of ADAA alumni. Cristian Zuzunaga was in San Francisco to speak at the @Arkitektura showroom during SF Design Week.

We first met Cristian in 2007, when he was attending the Royal College of Art in London. His group entry was chosen as an ADAA finalist selection for illustration. Cristian’s ADAA entry was a collection of men’s wear, using textiles inspired by pixelated coloration and modern graphics.

Cristian Zuzunaga shown with pixelated designs.

Cristian shared his insights for staying inspired. “I stay connected to my surroundings, to nature, and balance the stimuli of the city. My commute from the country allows for a quiet time to process and reflect on new designs or unexpected approaches.” Visit Cristian’s website.

We asked Cristian what advice he may have for recent graduates. Zuzanaga told of the times he was rejected for employment as a designer. “I went to many job interviews. I was rejected three or four times. By my fourth interview rejection, I told myself, ‘well if no-one else can see the potential that I see, then I must have something pretty different here.’ So I made a conscious choice to believe in myself and my work, and not get discouraged.”

Cristian Zuzunaga’s group collection, Royal College of Art, 2007.

Cristian Zuzunaga’s design house was founded in 2007, offering contemporary textile prints, rugs, furniture, and art pieces. Since then, Cristian has received numerous awards and worldwide recognition for his conceptual prints and product designs. Zuzunaga received the ICFF Award, for Best Textiles in New York, as well as the coveted Les Découvertes Award at Maison & Objet, in Paris. He also received the esteemed Elle Deco International Design Award for Best Fabric Design in 2011, in response to his Skyline curtain collection by Kvadrat.